Update from Jim & Adalia Fisher in the Philippines

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Hello from the Philippines,

Its been a long time since sending the last diary note, in fact I have been back to the UK twice (once with Dal my wife) since the last diary note so its that long. Much has happened, not just here in the Philippines but back home in the Forest of Dean, UK and of course Worldwide in the last few years.   Sit a while dear friends and take a little time out yourselves, wherever you are, to quietly reflect your own lives over the last few years. We live in a fast changing world, but God never changes, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8 (Heb. 13:8) Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

I will begin by telling you a little of our personal lives and activities, then change to our ministry lives and work.

Since getting married on 10th Nov 2012 (Dal chose the date to make it easy for me to remember 10-11-12, God Bless her) its been a period of consolidation, both for myself and jointly as a married couple here in the Philippines, change does take time. Here are some of the things we have done:

  • ACR Card – Permanent residency. Personal interviews with Government officials.
  • Post Office Identity Card, long process.
  • Barakay (local area police) Identitiy Card
  • Philippine Driving Licence
  • Opening Bank accounts
  • Best method of tranfering monies internationally
  • Bachelor of Theology course and graduation
  • Small business in trading, to help financially.
  • And legal registration for God Ministry Mission Houses.

It took nearly all the year of 2013, then in 2014 my wallet was stolen with all the issued cards. Police interviews had to be dealt with and affidavits obtained through Advocates to replace all the ID’s, all in all it took a further six months with lessons learned. Now I carry only duplicate cards with all the originals safely locked away. Thank you Lord for giving me patience (Hebrews 10: 36-39) and the heart to pray for whoever it was who stole my wallet initially, …as we forgive them who tresspass against us. The Lords prayer Matthew 6:12.

Philippine driving Licence. It was an amusing experience when I got my Philippine driving licence. There is always someone ready to fix something for you here in the Philippines, at a price of course! Dal and I took off one morning from home at 5am to travel to the Government Transport Office in a place called San Fernando. Armed with Prayers, Passport, UK driving Licence, birth and marriage certificates, completed application form with $12 payment, a smile on our faces and optimism in our hearts and not forgetting the very large bag of food/water as we anticipated a long day. As soon as we got there at 7am a medical and eye test was required ($2). Then we were approached by a man who informed that for US $50 he would get the licence without me completing the written and actual driving test which I was already prepared for, he said we just had to sit and wait, we said no (are we crazy), the price then dropped to $30 (not so crazy) we still said no! we just love the challenge.

We proceeded to an enquiry counter, we were informed by a very officious lady that a written test would be required before the actual driving test. We were then led to a large room with desks and chairs and was given the question paper, the lady present said I looked like Richard Harris in Harry Potter! (bless her) which was her favourite film. When she found out I was English she became so excited and led me to believe that she thought all English people were like the Harry Potter characters in the novel and movie. She just wanted to talk on the Harry Potter book so she called a man over to complete the Question form, Five minutes later he returned with a completed form and I was given a pass mark ha ha, thank you God, Harry Potter and Richard Harris and the excited lady. Returned to the main reception area and went to the next counter for arranging the actual driving test, was told to take a seat and I would be called, it was now 12 noon, time to attack that large bag of sandwiches and water for lunch, so far so good, but thought, I would certainly have to take the driving practical test.

We waited several hours, no call for the driving test so enquired, its ok Sir said a charming lady, we are working on it. Another hour went by then they called me, thrust a bundle of papers in my hand, they smiled and said it is done and this is your approved official driving licence, Dal and I were so joyful, the Lord had truly blessed us with the success of our days work. We went home at 4pm saying thanksgiving prayers still with our smiles and a Philippine driving licence in hand.

Permanent Residency of the Philippines – ACR Card. Just to clarify this, it is not Philippine Citizenship by giving up being a British Citizen, nor is it dual Citizenship, UK remains my country of domicile and I remain a UK Tax payer. It would be my entitlement if I passed all the requirements, as my wife is Filipino. Being granted a permanent residency allows me to travel in out and of the country easier, allows certain senior citizen privileges, like some discounts (not all) but some and allows me to go to the front of queue’s for me and if I am representing my wife such as banking, paying utility or phone bills, coach fares etc. this is a great time saver. Also allows me to being a member of some associations and Insurances groups. An unseen benefit, is showing my commitment to the country which gains a lot of appreciation and respect from the people. Like the UK, it was necessary to complete many forms and be interviewed by Government officials for worthiness, prior to being given the approval of residency which I duly passed. There are companies and Lawyers to do the process for you, but once again at a price, Dal and I chose the hard by doing it ourselves, so it cost us all in all about 120 pounds instead of 2-300 pounds for the easy way. We met many nice people who helped us, it gave us the experience to now help others, thank you Lord. Banking has also been made much easier as a permanent resident .

Food in the Philippines is somewhat different than western food, many dishes are very delicious and of course all served with rice, the latter being very stodgy and not fluffy at all. Filippinos love their rice which they have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes even with their morning and afternoon snacks, once a day is enough for me, maybe twice. A good range of western food is available both as commodities from shops and through restaurants and fast food outlets like Macdonalds etc. Jollibee is a Philippine equivalent to Macdonalds with a Chinese chain called Chow King. The food that does not appeal to me is ‘Ballute’ being baby chicks (boiled) eaten direct from the shell, and chicken blood called Dinuguan, used for cooking which is bought in a solid cake slice form (yuk). A good selection of fish is available, Vamous a white meaty fish is my favourite, fried as a whole fish.

Will change the theme now and tell you a little of our lives in the Christian Ministry works we are involved in. Will tell you more of our personal lives and living in the Philippines in the next diary note. 

Bachelors of Theology Degree – Studied and Graduated in the Philippines with Farcorners International Theological Seminary. (FITS). Whilst as evangelists/missionaries and sharing the Gospel with all who will listen, we were widely accepted by many pastors, Christian denomination groups and Church organisations in the Philippines, by using our experience and minimal Christian credentials. For me this included, time spent being Church Warden in the Anglican Church of England for 5-6 years that included an eighteen month interregnum period. Voluntary time spent with WMTEC studying Creation and the Pauline letters, this was part of the Readers three year qualifying course. Short term Church courses such as Worship leader, Bible study leader etc. Also, the many Alpha courses led and my time spent in India giving testimony, preaching and teaching over six years. However none of the foregoing was supported by a recognised formal Christian qualification and thus, there were some Christian leaders and Church groups who were polite and engaging but did not give us full acceptance nor took us seriously in the Ministry. Whilst we rightly used sayings like; “ God qualifies those called” and use of Matthew 28: 19-20 the Great commission, that tells us that Jesus said; “ go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them.” , however our hearts told us to do more in the eyes of man.

Both Dal and I prayed on this a lot, focussing on 1 Timothy 6:11-16 , especially verse 12 “Fight the good fight of the faith” this kept us going. But in particular, I was drawn to Paul’s message in the letter to the Romans Chapter 14:13-18 that ends in verse 18 by saying “because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by man. ‘Approved by man’, this I strongly sensed was telling me to unite with all people and remove what could be a stumbling block with our Christian work journey. So we decided in September 2013 to embark on a course in Theology to obtain a Bachelors degree. We were granted a fast track entrance based on our experience with a request to write summaries of every book of the bible (Old and New testament) which we duly did, and then we studied the Theology until May of the following year 2014, finally graduating with a Bachelors Degree of Theology. Academically it was not as demanding as would be followed for Readers or for Ordination in the UK but the content w roughly the same. It was hard and challenging especially for me, but rewarding, thank you Lord.

Since obtaining the degree from the Farcorners Seminary (Christian bible school), many opportunities have arose and greater acceptance by the general Philippne Christian leadership has happened. We have kept in touch with the Seminary should we wish to continue studies or refresher courses at a later date.

God Ministry Mission Houses, have increased to three now. They are in different area’s and engage with a different focus, so all meet a different need: we are not building an empire, but just sharing to others wherever we live.

  1. Magalang (Sta. Lucia) Mission House, we have a feeding ministry where we stay three days a week. People struggle in this area, many are jobless with no means of support except through other family members and/or on receiving ’love gifts’, little or no government support. Many times children do not go to school due to lack of family funds. Fellowship, Bible Study and prayer evenings are also held. We have several computers with internet (when it works) to support the children for school work and general use by the adults albeit little interest are shown by the latter but we try to encourage them. The Mission House also incorporates a library which has at present 250 books with 250 more arriving shortly, all being christian and education books with Christian tract’s and training books/pamphlets. Children are taken for days out, and the parents we try to encourage to attend outreach christian courses and seminars, cost of which, especially the transport is met by God Ministry and other funding. We would always like to do more, but are restricted to available finances.

In Sta Lucia Pastor Noel is our local Pastor ( Jesus Exalted Saviour Church) who has a music group which we have sent some of the young people to who come to the Mission House, for him to give music lessons to. We have keyboard, drums, guitar and tambourines for practice, the children have not shown continued serious interest todate but we still persevere with this including lots of prayer. The children are now in excess of 40 so at any one time we have 30-35 attendance.. A charitable man gave us a love gift of 1000 pesos (15 pounds) so we added to it and bought all the kids new flip flops, God Bless Pastor Marlu for the love gift.

Planning is being made to arrange for a Medical Mission team to visit Sta. Lucia to (a) give training to parents. (b) find sponsors for issue of free medicines. (c) Arrange for basic medical test, blood pressure, blood test, urine infections, etc. It will not be possible for any fee to be given by any of the people as they they struggle with the little they have now, they would like to but just not possible.

  1. Angeles City Mission House. This is a 24/7 prayer room, open all the time, very much a transit place for when people are passing by, where they will find bottled water, bibles and tracts. We use it also for town meetings, specific praying gatherings and some bible study activities. Its a simple place, basic easy chairs (6), shortly we will also put a bamboo bed for resting. The property is owned by Dal’s (wife) family so reasonably low cost to run. This is a town area so has no feeding ministry due to lack of facilities.
  1. Deca Clark Mission House. This is a new property and which is now our main home but we share it with the Christian work. We hold Bible study on a Saturday evening and shortly will include Pause for prayer on a Friday evening. The whole estate (sub-division to Filipinos) is new so many houses are empty at present, we are working hard to spread the Gospel in this area, every area has lost souls. We of course will spread the seed, but God will water and grow.  

              

Special Note on the Mission House in St Lucia. Dorothy Arnison who sadly passed away last year asked for the money collected at her funeral to be given to the church we both attended, St Stephen’s. The church and Dorothy’s family felt that Dorothy would have wanted to share the money with one of the charities she had supported and prayed for. The money has been spent on the Library book cases and some to the purchase of a second hand projector and computer equipment. She was a wonderful lady and I will personally miss her so and her encouragement. The Prayer Room is named ‘Pause for Prayer’ in rememberance of her, a donation plaque will also be placed in the bookcases. When home in UK in Feb/Mar of this year it was my great please to give a presentation to part of her family (Michael and Hazel). God Bless all and thank you Dorothy Arnison, a lady of quality.

Philippines is the only Christian country in South East Asia, so therefore has a great responsibility in defending the faith and spreading the Gospel. The Roman Catholics are by far the greater of the Christian population, having been occupied by Spain for a long period of time 18th to 20th century. Protestants are very active and seems to be growing in number but hard to establish by how much. The beginning of this year Pope Francis paid a visit where millions turned out to greet him, even though the weather was very wet. All his speeches were met with great enthusiasm by the Roman Catholic population. It was a simple and very human approach of love and compassion for people, especial those who lost so much during the Tacloban/Samer Typhoon of 2013, one man lost five children and his wife.

The Tacloban/Samer Yolanda Tyhoon. On our return to the Philippines from UK in Nov 2013 both Dal and I visited the devastated areas. Such a large mass of destruction and although it was reported that 6 thousand people lost their lives, the local authority there, believe it to be closer to 10,000, they are still recovering even today. We flew down equipped with Sheets, torches, batteries and bibles and spent 4 days in prayer with the people and christian groups, a very moving experience. We travelled back by coach which took us thirty four hours. Unbelievable widespread destruction, devastation and loss of life.

 

Contact details: of   Jim and Dal Fisher            Jim’s email address. [email protected]

Based; 1482 Sta jULIana Street, Claro M Recto, Angeles City 2009, Pampanga, Luzon. Philippines.

Mobile:     Jim 0063 922 976 9489   and Dal 0063 917 445 0524

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